Mount Aventine is a farm complex and national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located along the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

in Bryans Road,

Charles County, Maryland Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Wash ...

. The complex includes the main house; a second-quarter 19th century

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

-influenced brick house. It was enlarged about 1860 to its present five-bay, center-passage, -story appearance. Also on the property are a 19th-century frame smokehouse, the site of another 19th-century house complex, late-19th /early-20th-century agricultural outbuildings, house and dairy barn complex built about 1900, historic roadbeds, a family cemetery, and sites of a 19th-century fishery and an 18th-century house. Its former cupola was used as a signal station by the Federal government during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The Chapman family owned the Mt. Aventine tract from 1751 until 1916, and the ferry operated by them was one of several important crossings of the Potomac River connecting Northern Virginia to Maryland. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1996, and since 1998 has been preserved as part of

Chapman State Park Chapman State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Pleasant Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania near Clarendon, in the United States. The man-made Chapman Lake covers of the park. Chapman State Park is named in honor of Dr. Leroy E. Ch ...

. The house is open for tours during special events hosted by the Friends of Chapman State Park.

Gallery

Mount Aventine - Chapman House Rear.jpg, Rear of the Chapman House Mount Aventine - Abandoned Barn Complex.jpg, Abandoned barn

References

External links

Chapman State Park
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Friends of Chapman State Park
*, including photo from 1991, at Maryland Historical Trust {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Historic districts in Charles County, Maryland Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Greek Revival houses in Maryland Houses in Charles County, Maryland Museums in Charles County, Maryland Historic house museums in Maryland Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Charles County, Maryland